Hot of the Press: Jeff Faerber's Ode to Hokusai

The paint is just dry! Check out the just finished August paintings of the modern shunga artist Jeff Faerber:

Fig.1. A clandestine encounter at dusk between a maiden and her manservant results in much elation over the first subtle hints of a reciprocated crush, and mutual bliss over kitten videos on YouTube streamed over their 4g network (August 2018)

Fig.2. A couple with eyes averted and limbs entwined, each alive in floating worlds of separate thought, hers poignant and engorged, his (for fear of a truncated performance) of the 1972 Dodgers (August 2018)

The Adonis Plant

Jeff ‘s painting (Fig.2.) is inspired by Plate 11 from Hokusai‘s Fukujuso (The Adonis Plant) from around c.1815 (Fig.3.). The late shunga expert Richard Lane described the Hokusai design as follows:

Ample Phallus

“…Here we find yet another passionate matron – widow or unfaithful wife – swooning under the embraces of her mature lover. The conversation – presumably by Hokusai himself – is again not very edifying, consisting of the female’s directions to her lover regarding the proper placement and the manipulation of his ample phallus.

Fig.3. ‘Matron and lover‘ (c.1815) from the series ‘Fukujuso (The Adonis Plant)‘ by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849)

Fig.4. ‘Intimate travellers‘ (c.1814) from the series ‘Kinoe no komatsu (Young Pine Saplings)‘ by Katsushika Hokusai

Stronger Emotion

A rather similar composition will be found in an earlier Hokusai illustration, from Kinoe no komatsu (Fig.4.), but again the composition is a loose one, overly dominated by the baggage and parasol at rear. One might note here the differing psychological effect, depending on whether the lover has actually made entry or not: often it is the latter depiction that is the more sexually stimulating – expectation being, so to speak, a stronger emotion than fulfillment.”*